Vicious Cycle
by streco
Summary: And so the lion fell in love with the lamb. Then, the lion and his family, along with the lamb, were jammed into a 70’s love van, and decided to go on a cross country road trip on a whim, during a hot summer. Sure, let’s go with that. BellaEdward


**A/N: **I don't know what possessed me to write this. Actually, yes I do. I've read all three books, and recently forgotten about how much I loved them all. Then… I saw the movie trailers. Hoooo boy. Yep. I remember how much I love it now.

I've been dying to write for Twilight for a long time, but I've been afraid. Afraid of what? you may ask. Afraid of… disgracing the series. I write for Maximum Ride, which is more of a kid's book, not as well written as Twilight (arguable, obviously, but that's what I feel), and I feel bad if I mess up here. This is my first Twilight fic, and I haven't read the books in a while (believe me, I'm starting again soon) so I apologize if anything's wrong!

Oh, and I'm sorry if this plot has been used before. I just thought of it out of the blue.

**Vicious Cycle**

_1. I'm Bored_

Back in Phoenix, I really didn't do much, as you can probably tell, by my clumsiness. Walking up flights of stairs was probably the most action I got each day, and even _that _was a difficult thing for me to pull off without breaking my face, or fracturing my spine, or anything of the sort.

So as I sat here at Cullens R' Us, I began to think of something we could do. It was a normal day—cloudy, but not rainy, cool, but not freezing. Edward and I had been sitting around all day, occasionally adventuring from place to place, but it was odd, for once, to be together, and not have a thing in the world to worry about.

I throw that term around lightly, I guess—we needed to worry about being engaged, and me wishing to be changed, but now, there was a ring on my finger and not a discussion of being changed, and I was too lazy to argue it, so here we were. Planless on a wonderful Saturday afternoon in Forks. I was sitting in a house full of vampires, and I was bored_._ It's kind of funny how things can seem weird from other people's point of views, but completely normal through mine.

Now Edward was sitting at the piano, trying to decipher the chords of a song on the radio as it was playing at normal speed. With his perfect hearing, he was getting it, but every so often he'd get frustrated and pound on an inharmonic chord, which hurt even _my _nonmusical ears.

"Hey, Edward?" I said, turning my head from where I was seated on the couch to get a look at him on his piano bench.

"Yes, love?" His fingers continued to hit the keys daintily, echoing the music from the radio. I watched him for a short moment, and then realized I'd left the conversation hanging.

"We should do something."

He laughed. "Bella. That's the third time you've said that in fifteen minutes."

"I knooooow!" I whined. "But I'm serious—this is so _boring_."

He stopped. "I'm not even going to remark on that."

"Shut up. You know the circumstances are different because it's me."

"True. I bet if we told Mike Newton we were all vampires and locked him in the house, the last thing he'd say was, 'I'm bored.'"

"You're not fair."

"You're not normal."

"Never have been."

"Never will be."

"I hate you," I finally decided, and crossed my arms over my chest, facing the front of the house. Esme was outside working on the small garden they kept out there, and Carlisle was washing the windows. Perfectly normal. They didn't _seem _like vampires. Emmett and Jasper were probably upstairs playing video games, or something "manly." Rosalie, I think, was shopping. Alice was being Alice somewhere.

"I'm sure you do." He stepped away from the piano, not bothering to push the bench back in, and dropped himself next to me on the couch. "What do you propose we do, dearest Bella? I _am _one hundred and four, just so you know, so there's very few things I haven't done."

"Roller coasters?"

"Yep."

"Water parks?"

"Yes."

"Safari?"

"All the time."

"Cross country road trips?"

"Cross country _skiing._"

My eyebrows furrowed. "No. _Road trip_."

"No, don't plan on it, either," he chuckled, and smiled that damn crooked smile that gets me every time. I felt my heartbeat pick up, and he chuckled again. My heart rate continued to rise, which made him laugh _again_.

"Stop!" I shrieked, and jumped off the couch, a hand over my heart. "Are you trying to _kill _me?"

"Yeah, maybe, if you want to bring up the idea of a road trip again."

"Edward! Do you understand how much _fun _that would be?"

"What, me and you taking a trip across the states? Oh, sure, that would be swell… until I was caught in the sunlight and started looking like _Treasure Isle_," he frowned at this image, but it was something that made me laugh. I didn't, though. "Bella, it's an impossible idea. Don't continue with it, please?"

"Edward, we'll drive during the day, and explore during the night! I'm sure we could get a nice vehicle with tinted windows, or something. Please? Oh, man, it would be so fun! And we could bring Alice, and Jasper, and Emmett and Rose, too!"

An entertained look played on his face. "_Rosalie?_"

"She apologized. She's a good person, Edward."

"No, I know, but it's just… you two never seemed to get along too well."

"We could bring Carlisle and Esme, too, I'm sure they'd love it."

"No way. If we're doing this, we're _not _bringing my mother and father. Anyway, Carlisle's got the job, and Esme would want to be home with him."

Joy lit up my heart, and I did an excited leap across the room unexpectedly. Of course, I slipped, but Edward caught me just in time before I fell, in a way that would make any random passerby believe we'd been dancing, and he'd dipped me. "So you'll consider it?" I asked, grinning mischievously. He frowned again, dropped me lightly, and turned around.

"No."

I stood and wrapped my arms around his neck, my lips meeting his neck. I knew how good I smelled to him, and I knew how dangerous it was. But I loved it. He knew I loved to tease him. "Are you going through a phase, 'no' boy?"

"No."

"Aww, how cute."

"No."

I paused.

"Do you love me?"

"Yes," he responded automatically, but then realized his mistake, and corrected it. "I mean—no."

I grinned, and walked into the middle of the living room. "Calling all Cullens! Please report to the living room for a spectacular idea sponsored by the 'Get Bella happy' cause! We're going on a cross-country road trip, and we're going to drag Edward Cullen by his ear if we must!"

Alice literally flew into the damn room and squealed extremely loud. "_Really? _Oh, my God, I'd always _dreamed _of going on a road trip! That sounds like so much fun, when are we going to go? Where are we going to go? Whose car are we taking? Not mine, please, I don't want it to get messed up—oh, my God, this is so awesome—wait, who's coming? Are Carlisle and Esme going to—"

"We are _not _going _anywhere._ I _refuse_."

Alice frowned angrily. "You're such a downer sometimes, Edward."

"Alice, it's going to be _sunny _in most of these places. It is, after all, the _summer_. I don't want to glow like some damn freak show."

Emmett, who I hadn't seen enter the room, coughed loudly. Jasper appeared from behind him. "We sort of _are _a freak show, Edward."

Emmett nodded. "In case you hadn't noticed."

Rosalie made herself known on the balcony above our heads. "Why not?"

I grinned widely, and Edward's jaw dropped. "_What?_"

"I'll repeat myself. Why not?"

"Why not _what?_" Esme asked, walking into the room from outside. Her jeans were stained with green from kneeling in the dirt, and she offered a feeble wave to Carlisle, who was more or less pinned to the window while washing.

"Oh, _NOTHI—_" Edward said loudly, in attempts to drown out Alice, but it was too late.

"We're going on a _road trip!_"

"This is a horrible idea," Edward lamented, glaring at me and making eye contact with Rosalie. "Don't you understand that we can't go in the _sun? _That's why we live here, the _rainiest place in the US_." He waved his arms violently as he spoke. "Does nobody get the concept of remaining away from the radar screen?"

"We've lived in sunny places before," Alice put in, her eyes begging. "We just don't go out during the day. And if we do, we wear huge-ass bling."

My eyes widened at her un-Alicelike vocabulary, and every pair of eyes in the room was on her in shock. "Come again?" Jasper asked, trying to hide a laugh. Eventually, he did, filling the room with the full sound.

"Oh, sorry." She smiled sheepishly and rubbed the back of her neck. "Like, those big chain things that rappers wear? So it doesn't look like it's _us _shining. Or we could just wear really big raincoats and stuff—we used to do that when we lived in Maine," she reminded her family. "Remember? The moose were so great there, but it was sunny a lot, too. So we'd wear sweatshirts."

"But it was cold there a lot," Edward pointed out.

"I say it's a great idea," Emmett smiled big and goofily, and I ran over to give him a big hug.

"I agree," Jasper said. I hugged him.

Alice flung herself into my arms and shouted, "Let's do it!"

As I looked over her shoulder at Edward, I saw his face harden into one of anger. He didn't get his way. Boo-hoo. "Build a bridge and get over it," I teased, and stuck my tongue out at him.

He had to smile, but he shook his head. "I really don't like you."

"Love you, too."

**A/N:** Please review! I'd love positive feedback, since this is my first story.


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